Research Update: Persistance of Child Marriage in the USA

Persistence of Child Marriage in the USA

Unchained At Last’s most recent research update, published in late 2025 in partnership with Equality Now, is titled

Legal Gaps and Enduring Harm: Analysing the Persistence of Child Marriage in the United States

Key Research Findings
The study analyzed data from 2000 to 2021 and revealed the following:

Prevalence: An estimated 315,000 minors were legally married in the U.S. during this period.
Vulnerability: 86% of the married minors were girls, most often wed to adult men an average of more than four years their senior.
Abuse and Exploitation: At least 20% of these marriages occurred under conditions that would otherwise be considered a sex crime (statutory rape), demonstrating how marriage laws can provide a “get out of jail free” card for abusers.
COVID-19 Impact: The number of minors wed had decreased every year after 2001 until 2021, the year of the pandemic, when it increased by 3.8%.

Married minors lack legal capacity and access to justice

The legal system, by treating them as children in some respects and as adults in others, creates a concerning gap in the frameworks meant to protect children from violence, and reinforces the power imbalances often found in child marriages.

Federal statutes that permit and encourage child marriage

No federal minimum age to petition for a foreign spouse or fiancé visa

Military exceptions to child marriage

Financial assistance provisions thatincentivise child marriage

Reporting requirements legitimise child marriage

Study Excerpts

“Romeo and Juliet” provisions permitting child marriage

Twelve states allow exceptions to marriage laws where both parties are close in age under “Romeo and Juliet” provisions. For example, Arizona allows 16 and 17-year-olds to marry if the spouse is no more than three years older with parental consent, and North Carolina permits 16 or 17-year-olds to marry only if the age gap is under four years with parental and judicial consent.34 These provisions are generally intended to avoid prohibiting consensual adolescent relationships, but in practice, they are written too broadly, enforced with limited oversight, and lack adequate safeguards to detect coercion or power imbalances. This creates significant opportunities for misuse.

Pregnancy or parentage permitting child marriage

Four states, Arkansas, Maryland, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, currently allow legal exceptions to the minimum age of marriage where the girl is either pregnant or has given birth to the child of the prospective spouse. Such exceptions were previously more common; however, with years of advocacy only four remain.

These provisions are framed as protective; to create family stability, social acceptability, or ensure the “legitimacy” of the baby. In practice, though, they expose minors to further harm by treating pregnancy or parenthood as justifications for marriage, rather than as potential signs of coercion, statutory rape, or child abuse.

Marriage as a loophole for statutory rape

Exceptions that allow underage marriage based on pregnancy or parentage are often intertwined with broader legal loopholes that undermine statutory rape exceptions. In 19 states, there is an explicit legal exception or defence to statutory rape laws in the case of marriage, effectively shielding adults from prosecution for engaging in sexual activity with minors.

Statutory rape laws exist to protect minors from sexual exploitation by recognising that they are not legally capable of consenting to sexual activity with significantly older adults. However, when a marriage certificate is issued, these statutory protections often disappear.